If present trends continue, Houston babies born this year will have a life expectancy of 137 years

May

Sugar is selling in the stores for 35 cents a five pound bag

Oscar Holcombe is elected Mayor of Houston again when he defeats Roy Hofheinz, the incumbent 

The upward trends continued in general, but with the beginning of the next decade, economic and political conditions began to take on a new look. The years of consolidation from 1955 to 1960 saw the opening of the Space Age, the beginning of commercial jet aviation, the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt, the rise to power of Fidel Castro in Cuba, the beginning of racial strife in the United States with race riots in Little Rock, and the business recession of 1957 and 1958. These years of consolidation brought significant changes to Houston.

Metropolitan Houston’s labor force kept pace with the fast-moving industrial and commercial development. In January, 1956, the total labor force stood at 409,575 compared to 234,900 in April, 1940. Some 396,575 were employed at the beginning of 1956, compared to 211,900 in 1940.

Major buildings contributing to the growing skyline of Houston in the 100,000 to 1,000,000 square-foot class completed in the years 1956 through 1960 included: Bank of the Southwest, Montrose, Medical Towers, Adams Petroleum, Memorial Professional, Hermann Professional Addition, and Texaco Addition.

Perhaps the most significant development of this five-year period would be evidence of Houston’s economic stability during the period of 1957 and 1958 when a recession that prevailed throughout the nation reached proportions of a depression in the oil industry. Because of Houston’s leadership in the oil industry, and the dominance of oil-related business in the Gulf Coast area, economists had long expressed concern over the ability of the city to ride out depressed conditions in all phases of the petroleum industry. Since the oil industry is a diversified one, with no prior record of depression striking all oil-industry phases (including exploration and production, refining, and transportation and marketing) at the same time, the thought of a simultaneous recession in all these related industries had been a cause of concern for Houston. This happened during 1957 and 1958. However, demonstrating its sound economic base and the diversification of its interest, Houston showed a growth rate of approximately five per cent for each of these years.

Confidence in the future was expressed by President Ben C. Belt of the Chamber of Commerce at the beginning of 1956. Characterizing 1955 as Houston’s finest year to date, Mr. Belt said that most economists and business leaders were confident that 1956 would be another year of high-level commercial and industrial activity. Since Houston had been established as the hub of the rapidly developing Gulf Coast region, he said, the very dynamism of the economy had become an increasing magnet for expansion of industry and distribution.

"Houston also has many problems", he said, "and these are not overlooked in the 1956 program of work of the Chamber of Commerce. Fortunately, many of our problems are those of growth rather than those of stagnation. There is always more incentive to work on the problems of a dynamic community, one that is going ahead and growing and improving. Our needs in the fields of water supply, street and highway improvements, flood control, fire prevention and many others will receive increased attention this year.

Houston became the nation’s second largest city in area early in the year when 140 square miles were annexed to give Houston a total area of 320 square miles, being exceeded only by Los Angeles with 450. The Chamber of Commerce has consistently supported the City of Houston in its annexation program. Texas laws have made it rather easy for home-rule cities to annex additional area, and the foresight of its mayors and city councils through the years has enabled Houston to maintain its metropolitan integrity even during a period of changing patterns in urban development.

When a city’s boundary lines cannot be expanded to accommodate its swelling growth, problems of maintaining a community of interests are created. Houston’s annexation program through the years has made it possible to channel future growth along more uniform and sound lines. It has been found to be easier to integrate new territory into the city than it is to cope with the problem of fringe-area incorporation.

The annexation program was followed by a two-to-one approval of $21,500,000 in city bonds for needed public works. By this action, Houston reversed in an impressive way the pattern of bond defeats which had characterized metropolitan areas across the country for several years. This bond election gave the people of Houston an opportunity to express their interest in the city’s progress and in continuing its forward momentum at an accelerating pace.

Referring to this action in the February, 1956, issue of "Houston Magazine", President Belt wrote: "Virtually everybody in Houston looks forward to the dynamic growth and sound development which will strengthen our economy and create the better life that improved conditions make possible. This is but another way of saying that just about everyone believes in the objectives of the Houston Chamber of Commerce.

"There may be wide disagreement as to the means which ought to be adopted to have a better city. This is an honest difference of opinions. It indicates no real schism in the teamwork effort for a better and more prosperous community. The Houston Chamber of Commerce seeks year after year to pinpoint important needs and opportunities of the area, to make known factual analysis of these in order to enlist understanding support, and then to develop the methods and organization and to generate the action necessary to accomplish these objectives.

"More and more, we find that business and industry and the professions are assuming responsibility for building the community in the public interest. Therefore, it is necessary to have a substantial, community-wide organization through which the leadership and workmanship of the community can serve together. This organization is the Houston Chamber of Commerce. It represents all business and industry, all professions, the entire range of community interests."

Finding solutions to area-wide problems was no new venture for the Houston Chamber of Commerce, and substantial progress had long since been recorded in several fields where sound public policy had demanded a regional approach to regional problems. Accepting the fact that the continued economic, social and governmental progress of the Houston area depended upon frank recognition of area-wide problems and upon area-wide solutions to them, the Houston Chamber of Commerce extended its policy of the area concept of its responsibility to practically every phase of its activities.

Later in the year, President Belt was to characterize urban development as the century’s paramount problem—not simply the growth of cities but rather the character of the growth. He pointed out that the evils of population density were shifting to the problems of the dispersion of population.

As perhaps the most significant of many trophies received through the years by the Houston Chamber of Commerce, in April of 1956, it was awarded a plaque for "the best program of work in the United States for cities with more than 200,000 population". This was presented by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. It would be followed by two similar awards during the next six years. A winner of this trophy was not eligible to receive it again the next year. The report submitted for the judging in this competition was characterized as a one-year study showing how a city grows to greatness."

As a means of further cementing good will with the Latin American countries, the Houston Chamber of Commerce worked out arrangements with the U. S. State Department in April for seventeen Latin American ambassadors and ministers to visit Texas. They left Washington on April 27^th and before their return, two days later, the group had visited Dallas, College Station, Houston, and Austin, as well as Southern Methodist University, Texas A. & M. College, The Rice Institute, the University of Houston and the University of Texas. A staff representative of the Chamber of Commerce went to Washington with Texas hats for each of the participants in the tour and coordinated all details of the trip.

Those who made the trip represented Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Publications throughout this country and Latin America featured the trip in pictures and stories.

During the year, the Houston Chamber of Commerce signed a contract with the Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio for a two-year study of air-pollution conditions in the Houston industrial area. The study was a further step in the long-range program of the Chamber of Commerce to keep informed on trends in air and water pollution in the Houston area. The survey was designed to give scientific information on the nature and extent of whatever air pollution the community might have, to establish bench-marks against which future measures might be made, and to give the Chamber of Commerce a basis for planning future industrial growth. Work in this field had been formalized by the Chamber of Commerce with the creation of a Waste Disposal Committee in 1948.

Concerned with Houston’s lack of progress in commercial aviation and with its increasingly unfavorable position in air service in comparison with other major cities of the country, the Chamber of Commerce in July, 1956, asked its Aviation Committee to make a 10-year projection of the local aviation needs. The committee was asked to arrive at recommendations based upon existing service and facilities and future needs. The study was to be in the same pattern as a series of water-supply studies dating back to 1947. International as well as domestic air service was to be included in the study.

During the year, the Chamber of Commerce worked with representatives of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to obtain approval of the Civil Aeronautics Board and the U. S. State Department for KLM to serve Houston on flights between Mexico City through Montreal to Holland. Before these negotiations were initiated, President Belt wired all the domestic airlines serving Houston asking (1) if they were interested in negotiating rights to connect Houston with Europe and (2) if not, if they would refrain from any active opposition to Houston’s negotiations for such service to be supplied by KLM. All these carriers, with the exception of Pan American Airways, responded in such a way as to indicate no active opposition. Pan American did not respond.

During the year, the Highway Committee of the Chamber of Commerce continued efforts it had initiated two years earlier to make it possible for Harris County to finance the essential purchase of right-of-way for freeway construction. The feasibility of a wheel tax had been determined and public support had been marshaled for necessary legislative authorization. However, in a friendly suit to determine its legal base, the Texas Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. Emergency action had to be taken, and although the public had voted down an earlier proposal for right-of-way bonds, a $15,000,000 issue was approved by a four-to-one vote on September 8, 1956.

The Chamber of Commerce at its annual meeting in December characterized 1956 as one of Houston’s best years. Jobs had been increased by about 27,000. Public and private construction had gone forward in impressive volumes. The citizens of Houston had indicated their support of progress by approving bond issues for city, county and school district. For the first time in history, the number of passengers moving through the Houston International Airport surpassed the population of metropolitan Houston, well in excess of one million. New interest had been developed in cultural activities. Palms Center and the Gulfgate Shopping Center were opened as additional major units in the new pattern of dispersed retailing activity in metropolitan Houston. The Houston Independent School District formalized a policy on segregation in line with a recent ruling of the United States Supreme Court.

When 1957 opened, the economic outlook was bright, but recessional tendencies began to make themselves felt within a few months. However, for the year, the growth trends maintained about the same rate of increase that had been experienced in the Houston area since the close of World War II. While there were some troubled spots in the economic picture, with at least a temporary period of readjustment in evidence near the end of the year, business conditions in the main during the year were good and employment held to high levels.

Early in the year, the Chamber of Commerce spearheaded a successful bond issue campaign for the Port of Houston that marked the beginning of a new era of progress and development for the Port. Prior to this effort, controversy within the Port Commission and other factors had resulted in the defeat of a series of proposals which the Navigation District had submitted to the people. After endorsing the Port’s $7,000,000 bond proposal, to be supplemented by $5,000,000 in revenue bonds, for improvement of Port facilities, the Chamber of Commerce organized a county-wide Citizens Committee headed by the veteran banker and civic leader, F. M. Law, to campaign for approval of the bonds.

During the three years prior to these bond authorizations, customs collections by the Federal Government at the Port of Houston reached a total of $39,000,000. Contrary to the claims of some critics of the port elsewhere, for the entire 63-year-period during which the Federal Government had made investments in the Port of Houston, its cumulative outlays for all purposes had been but $38,000,000.

Jerry Turner, general manager of the Port, in May, 1957, made a 40-year forecast for the Port, saying: "I picture a Houston with additional ship channels reaching inland from Galveston Bay and lined with industries supplying the needs of the world from its own surrounding territory and from the greater hinterlands available to it. I see ships from all the world vying with each other for the cargoes from the bountiful industries created by the influx of chemical plants, steel plants, and other manufacturers, which will be located on and adjacent to the ship channels. It will not be just the Pittsburgh of the South, but the steel capital of the country and chemical capital as well. It will be the leading port for the import of iron ore and the export of steel—the top port in the export of fertilizer and grain, the top port still for the handling and exportation of petroleum and petroleum products and cotton."

Earlier in the year, "Houston Magazine" had said: "Houston is in a favored position to become, in time, one of the world’s major steel-producing centers. Dynamic growth creating growing markets for steel, availability of iron ore in East Texas, availability of limestone, a Southwestern supply of coking coal, an abundant supply of economical natural gas, a tidewater location, and a large supply of scrap iron are a combination of factors that will lead to the development of the Houston area as a primary producing area for iron and steel and their products."

The air-pollution survey, conducted by the Southwest Research Institute, under sponsorship of the Chamber of Commerce, was completed during 1957 to provide the first body of authoritative information on air pollution in the Houston area. In general, it was very reassuring. The report found that: (1) air conditions in Houston are favorable to rapid dispersion and dilution of pollutants, and no evidence was found to indicate the occurrence of complete air-mass stagnation for any extended periods of time, such as had caused air-pollution disasters in other areas; (2) the problems of temporary air pollution were localized rather than being community-wide problems; (3) no similarity was found with conditions in the Los Angeles area; (4) measured concentrations of sulfur dioxide were not excessive; (5) hydrogen sulphide generally was found to be in low amounts; (6) only traces of chlorine and sulfate were recorded; (7) the most unfavorable pollution pattern resulted when the wind was from the east or northeast, which allowed mixing of pollutants from several sources; (8) on a community-wide basis, the average dust-content of the atmosphere was in the same range as volumes reported in other major cities; (9) little damage was found to foliage; and (10) no eye irritants were identified.

President Belt said: "We consider the findings of the survey to be so important to the community that the Executive Committee has authorized additional work to supplement certain phases of the study to be carried on next year. The first year’s survey was done at a cost of some $125,000, to the Houston Chamber of Commerce. The second year’s work will cost about $35,000, and will be in the nature of a confirmation survey.

"Houston is an industrial community, with the nation’s greatest concentration of oil refineries and chemical plants, and so long as we are, we shall continue to have some pollution in the atmosphere, despite the genuine efforts being made by industry and control authorities to eliminate or substantially control the emissions of pollutants from their plants."

"The only way to have no air pollution at all is to have no industry at all, or no city at all; so all of our considerations are relative. We must compare the findings of the Houston survey with conditions which prevail in other industrial cities. From the standpoint of pollutants and dust in the atmosphere, we compare very favorably, or better, especially when it is considered that our problems are not community-wide. The report established a benchmark against which trends in the air pollution may be measured in the future. In this regard, we trust the report will be useful and helpful to our control authorities, who have not had the budget funds, personnel or equipment to undertake such a comprehensive survey. Our control authorities have performed a fine service to the public in the past, and we are pleased to make this contribution to their efforts."

Without question, 1957 was a transitional year for aviation activities in Houston. The survey of Houston’s air-transportation needs for the next ten years, as authorized the year before, was completed and provided the basic information for a significant conference with the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington on November 21, 1957. This report documented a position that the growth of population and industry in Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast area had far outpaced the development of air transportation for the region, and that the importance of Houston and its area in the national economy justified close scrutiny of its transportation inadequacies.

The negotiations that had been inaugurated in 1956 with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines reached the hearing, favorable-decision, and flight-inauguration stages during 1957. On the eve of the announcement that the bilateral negotiations between the United States and the Netherlands were nearing completion, Pan American World Airways announced that it would like to provide direct one-plane service between Houston and Europe. The Houston Chamber of Commerce supported this application and reaffirmed its support of the KLM proposal, declaring that it "stood ready to support still other proposals for international air service". On March 15^th, Pan American formally petitioned the Civil Aeronautics Board for permission to extend its service from Mexico City to Houston, plus one other stop in the United States, and to Europe. On March 18, the Civil Aeronautics Board and the State Department started hearings on the KLM proposal.

That afternoon the United States and the Netherlands signed a bilateral air treaty, thus climaxing a two-year crucial aviation controversy that ended with a large air-age reward for Houston. Authority was given KLM to pick up Europe-hound passengers in Houston on its flight from Mexico City to Amsterdam by way of Montreal. With this announcement, Pan American withdrew its application.

In the meantime, Houston was experiencing problems in connection with its air service to Latin America. In a bilateral air agreement, Dallas, San Antonio and New Orleans were included as ports of entry, but Houston did not receive the same designation. The Chamber of Commerce took the matter up with the Civil Aeronautics Board, the State Department, and the Texas Congressional Delegation. Chairman Benjamin N. Woodson and Manager Joe Foster of the Chamber’s Aviation Committee pursued the matter with agency calls in Washington. The State Department and the Civil Aeronautics Board suggested that Pan American be approached with the idea of an interchange service being developed with a major domestic carrier to provide service to and from Mexico City and perhaps the Chicago-Detroit areas, via Houston. Pan American was receptive to the suggestion, but indicated that it had other international negotiations that would have to be completed before this proposal could be investigated.

Early in September, the Chamber of Commerce urged the City of Houston to create a Department of Aviation within the city government "to develop and prosecute an aggressive and continuous aviation policy for Houston, including the operation and expansion of airport and terminal facilities to meet the requirements of the forthcoming Jet Air Age." The recommendation suggested that the department be created by the mayor and city council members who would take office in January, 1958, so that adequate budgetary provision might be made for it, at the beginning of the year, for a first full year of operation.